When you choose to live the grace-life, there will inevitably be people who stand on the side-lines. They'll shake their heads. Cross their arms. Frown disapprovingly. Whisper behind your back (or maybe say things to your face).
You may wonder how people who claim to love and follow God could be so opposed to His gift.
I guess because if grace is really true, we don't have a measuring stick to judge each other (or ourselves) by. Grace leaves no room for pride. Rule-keeping feeds our pride, and who of anyone of us does not have a proud heart by nature? Grace is also messy and uncomfortable. Rules, on the other hand, are predictable and keeping them gives us a sense of being in control.
Still, when you know the freedom and joy that grace brings, you can't help but be saddened at the sheer intensity that resistance can take.
But there is hope for the most resistant, the staunchest of Pharisees. Grace can win their hearts, too.
How do I know?
I know because of Paul's story. Pharisee of Pharisees, he called himself. Meticulous keeper of the Law. Zealous to the point of personally seeking out and arresting those who lived the grace-life. But God shattered the proud shell around Paul's heart. He became an outspoken proclaimer of this grace.
And I know because of my own story. I was a Pharisee, a side-line head-shaker, a frowning arm-crosser for years. But grace could conquer even me.
It did conquer me.
It turned my world upside down.
It ushered me into a completely different relationship with my Heavenly Father.
And it gives me something to celebrate for the rest of my days.
What a beautiful testimony of grace that transforms! It could be my story but you stated it better than I could have. Thank you Jesus, and thank you, dear friend!
ReplyDeleteHe's wonderful, isn't He? :)
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